Video conference call conversation topic sharing system

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed herein to a method for presenting topics of conversation during a call comprising: connecting, by a computer, a first device and a second device over a network; opening, by a computer, an audio channel that facilitates audio communication between a first user of the first device and a second user of the second device; receiving, by a computer, an audio stream over the audio channel; analyzing, by a computer, the audio stream to determine spoken words said by either the first or second users; correlating, by a computer, the determined spoken words to determine a topic of conversation; and displaying, by a computer, the topic of conversation in an information post to a remote terminal connected to the network.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This non-provisional patent application is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/756,804, entitled “Video Conference CallConversation Topic Sharing System,” and filed on Feb. 1, 2013, theentire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to video conferencing, and moreparticularly, to video conferencing integrated with a social network.

BACKGROUND

Voice over internet protocol (VOIP) and internet video calling provide ameans of communication using the Internet. These technology solutionsmay provide additional communication features or cost savings. Forexample, VOIP facilitates long distance and international communicationtypically at a lower cost than conventional phone lines or cellularphone calls. Meanwhile, video chats provide a more intimatecommunication session between connected users because images of facialexpressions are transmitted with an audio stream of a conversation.Because of the benefits, Internet-based communication has becomeincreasingly popular.

Internet-based, real-time communication has also become increasinglypopular because these services are more accessible, and in manysituations, these services are provided for no additional fee. Forexample, popular social networking websites, such as Google+ andFacebook, have begun to implement these communication services for free.FIGS. 1-3 illustrate how a conventional Facebook video call isinitiated. As shown in FIG. 1, a social network webpage for Facebookuser “Nathan” 101 is illustrated, which may include a plurality ofsocial networking posts in a “news feed” area 102. A chat friends list104 appears on the right side of the screen. The chat friends list 104lists all of Nathan's 101 friends who are currently signed into Facebookand available to chat. Some friends, such as “Cassie” 106, are signedinto Facebook through a mobile device. Friends available through amobile device may not be interacting with the Facebook mobileapplication, but Facebook servers can send a message to that user'smobile device if Nathan 101 attempts to chat with a user availablethrough the mobile device. Other friends, such as Arun 108, are signedinto Facebook and immediately available to chat, as shown by the greendot 110 adjacent to Arun's 108 name.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, if Nathan 201 decides to begin a conversationwith Arun 208, Nathan 201 clicks on Arun's 208 name in the chat friendslist 204, and a chat window 202 appears at the bottom of the screen.Using the chat window 202, Nathan 201 can chat with Arun 208 throughconventional instant messaging. The right side of the chat window titlebar 203 displays a start video call button 204. If Nathan 201 pressesthe start video call button 204, a message is sent to Arun 208 notifyinghim of Nathan's 201 request to video chat. If Arun 208 accepts Nathan's201 invitation to video chat, Facebook initiates a connection, andNathan 201 and Arun 208 may engage in a video conversation.

After clicking the start video call button 204, as shown in FIG. 3, avideo chat window 302 appears in the middle of the screen. The videochat window 302 is displayed over the normal social networkinginformation displayed on the social network's website.

Other social network's video chat applications may behave differentlythan the exemplary Facebook implementation. For example, Google+ createsa unique URL for an initiated Google Hangout and opens Google Hangout ina new internet browser window. Some services may implement their ownsoftware to connect video calls, such as Skype, rather than using aweb-based application.

While two or more people converse through a video chat, the words saidand the topics discussed remain private to the people connected to thevideo chat. In some situations, privacy is important, especially ifvideo chat participants are discussing confidential or privilegedinformation. However, in other situations, people may desire to be morepublic and social about their conversation. Currently, social networks,such as Facebook and Google+, fail to make information about the videoconversation public. Social networks leave parties not receiving aninvitation to the video conversation unaware of the existence of thevideo chat and the topics of conversation during the video chat.

Further, some users who receive an invitation to video chat may like tojoin a conversation, but only if the topic of conversation isinteresting. Nevertheless, there is no means for the user decidingwhether to join to know what the topic of conversation is without firstjoining the conversation and listening to what is being said. Thislimitation may cause some users to miss out on interestingconversations.

As a result, video chat services fail to notify users who are notparticipants to a video conversation of the existence of theconversation and the topics of conversation. As a result, there is aneed to notify users of the existence of a video conversation and thetopics discussed in the video conversation

SUMMARY

The systems and methods described herein attempt to overcome thedrawbacks discussed above by using voice recognition software during aninternet call to recognize words said during the conversation. Aftergathering words, a computer algorithm analyzes the gathered words fortrends of commonly said words or topics that correlate the words saidduring the call. Once at least one topic of conversation is discovered,the topics may be displayed to designated people through a socialnetwork. Those designated people can then determine if they want to jointhe video call based on their interest in the topics of discussion orthe call participants.

In one embodiment, a method for presenting topics of conversation duringa call comprises connecting, by a computer, a first device and a seconddevice over a network; opening, by a computer, an audio channel thatfacilitates audio communication between a first user of the first deviceand a second user of the second device; receiving, by a computer, anaudio stream over the audio channel; analyzing, by a computer, the audiostream to determine spoken words said by either the first or secondusers; correlating, by a computer, the determined spoken words todetermine a topic of conversation; and displaying, by a computer, thetopic of conversation in an information post to a remote terminalconnected to the network.

In another embodiment, a method for presenting topics of conversationduring a call comprises connecting, by a computer, a first device and asecond device over a network; opening, by a computer, an audio channelthat facilitates audio communication between a first user of the firstdevice and a second user of the second device; receiving, by a computer,an audio stream of audio over the audio channel; analyzing, by acomputer, the audio stream to determine spoken words said by either thefirst or second user; filtering, by a computer, unimportant linkingwords among the words spoken by either the first or second user;identifying, by a computer, a frequently spoken important word among thewords spoken, wherein the frequently spoken important word is a wordidentified as being spoken multiple times during the call; anddisplaying, by a computer, the frequently spoken important word in aninformation post to a remote terminal connected to the network.

In another embodiment, a topic of conversation determining systemcomprising a video chat computer configured to open an audio/videochannel to provide an audio/video communication to at least a first anda second client device connected to a social network; a social networkcomputer configured to provide a web interface and a web application ofthe social network, receive a request from the first client device toopen an audio/video communication with the second client device madethrough the social network web interface, redirect the request to thevideo chat computer, and display an information post to a remoteterminal connected to the social network; and a conversation analysiscomputer configured to receive an audio stream of the audio/videocommunication from the video chat computer, analyze the audio stream todetermine spoken words said during the audio/video communication,correlate the determined words to determine a topic of conversation, andsend the determined topic of conversation to the social network computerfor inclusion in the information post.

Additional features and advantages of an embodiment will be set forth inthe description which follows, and in part will be apparent from thedescription. The objectives and other advantages of the invention willbe realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out inthe exemplary embodiments in the written description and claims hereofas well as the appended drawings.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and areintended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings constitute a part of this specification andillustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with thespecification, explain the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a screen shot of a main page of a social networkwebsite.

FIG. 2 illustrates a screen shot of a chat window of a social networkwebsite.

FIG. 3 illustrates a screen shot of a video chat window on a socialnetwork website.

FIG. 4 illustrates a system diagram of a system providing a video chatthrough a social network according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a screen shot of a social network post regarding avideo chat conversation according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a screen shot of a social network post regarding avideo chat conversation according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for notifying social network connections ofa video chat conversation and the topics of conversation according to anexemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments,examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

The embodiments described above are intended to be exemplary. Oneskilled in the art recognizes that numerous alternative components andembodiments that may be substituted for the particular examplesdescribed herein and still fall within the scope of the invention.

FIG. 4, illustrates a system diagram of a system facilitating videochats according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, a socialnetwork datacenter 400 is connected to a plurality of client devices410, 412, 414, 416 through the network 420. The social networkdatacenter 400 comprises a social network server 402, a video chatserver 404, and a conversation analysis server 406. While the socialnetwork server 402, the video chat server 404, and the conversationanalysis server 406 are each described as a single server, each of these“servers” is most likely comprised of many servers acting in concert toprovide a social network website, video chat services, and conversationanalysis. Or, the social network server, the video chat server 404, andthe conversation analysis server 406 may be three modules of onecomputer. The number of servers included in the social networkdatacenter 400 likely depends on the popularity of the website and thenumber of users accessing the servers comprising the social networkdatacenter 400.

The social network server 402, the video chat server 404, and theconversation analysis server 406 may each contain computer hardwarenecessary to facilitate network based communication andweb-applications. Such hardware may include, but is not limited to, aprocessor, computer memory, databases, network interfaces, powersupplies, chipsets, communication buses, etc. Using the hardware thatcomprises each server, the servers of the social network data center 400provide web-based applications that are accessible to the client devices410, 412, 414, 416 through the network 420.

The client devices 410, 412, 414, 416 may also include similar computerhardware components to the servers comprising the social network datacenter 400. The client devices 410, 412, 414, 416 may be personalcomputers, computer terminals, or mobile devices, such as a smart phone,tablet, PDA, e-book reader, or any other internet-connected device. Ingeneral, each of the client devices 410, 412, 414, 416 should have atleast a microphone or a web camera, and preferably both so that afull-featured video chat can be enabled.

The network 420 may be any communication network, such as the Internet.However, the network 420 may also be an Intranet, and the social networkprovided by the social network datacenter 400 may only be offered tomembers of an organization with access to the Intranet. In eithersituation, the network 420 may be any type of communication network,whether wired or wireless, that connects digital devices togetherthrough a communication protocol, such as TCP/IP, UDP, SSH, ICMP, HTTP,etc.

The social network server 402 provides a web interface and webapplications of the social network. The social network server 402transmits user profile pages to the client devices 410, 412, 414, 416,receives data uploaded from the client devices 410, 412, 414, 416, anddisplays the uploaded data publicly to other client devices 410, 412,414, 416. The social network server 402 may include or be connected toan authentication service so that only registered users of the socialnetwork may access the social network server 402. Upon connection to thesocial network server 402, the social network server 402 provides asubset of all the data stored by the social network server 402 to eachclient device 410, 412, 414, 416. In other words, the client devices410, 412, 414, 416 receive only the information they have permission toaccess. For example, a first user may only view information uploaded bythe first user's social network connections. Becoming a social networkconnection involves a second user granting permission to the first userto view information uploaded by the second user. On Facebook, thesesocial network connections are called “Friends,” but other socialnetworks may have other permission granting processes. In some cases,the social network server 402 provides the most recently uploadedinformation by social network connections.

The social network server 402 provides many different applications andservices, which are traditionally provided by social networks, such asphoto uploading, games, and instant messaging. Social networks arewell-known in the art, so a further description of all the services andapplications provided by the social network server 402 are omitted.

One of the services provided by the social network datacenter 400 may bea video communication service. The video communication service may beprovided by the video chat server 404. Whenever a user of one of theclient devices 410, 412, 414, 416 desires to communicate with anotheruser of one of the client devices 410, 412, 414, 416 through audio/videocommunication, the social network server 402 hands the request to thevideo chat server 404. The video chat server 404 opens a communicationchannel between the two of the client devices 410, 412, 414, 416, forexample client 410 and client1 412. If client° 410 initiated the videoconference request, the video chat server 404 sends a notification toclient1 412 telling the user of client1 412 that the user of client0 410would like to video chat. If the user of client1 412 accepts, the videochat server 404 sends a message to client0 410 and client1 412instructing both client devices 410, 412 to start recording video from aweb camera and audio from a microphone. The video chat server 404receives the audio and video from both client devices 410, 412. In oneembodiment, the video chat server 404 sends the received audio and videothe social network server 402 so that the audio and video feeds can bedisplayed through the social network web page.

The video chat server 404 may further open a communication channel toone of the other client devices 414, 416 after connecting two clientdevices 410, 412. For example, if the user of client3 416 notices thatthe user of client0 410 and the user of client1 412 are chatting, theuser of client3 416 may request to join the conversation. Subsequent tothe video chat server 404 accepting the request, the audio and videofeeds from client0 410 and client1 412 are also sent to client3 416, andclient3 may participate in the conversation.

After the video chat server 404 opens a communication channel, the videochat server 404 sends the audio of the conversation to the conversationanalyzer 406. The conversation analyzer 406 records the audio stream,analyzes the audio stream to determine words spoken by one of theparticipants of the conversation, and determines topics of conversationby finding trends in the words spoken by the participants of the videochat. The conversation analyzer 406 may be relatively simple orrelatively complex in the search for trends. In a simplerimplementation, the conversation analyzer 406 may search for importantwords said multiple times during a conversation. In a more compleximplementation, the conversation analyzer 406 may correlate spoken wordsto find a topic of conversation. This correlation will be described infurther detail below. The complexity of the conversation analyzer 406may depend on the hardware capabilities of the conversation analysisserver 406.

The conversation analyzer 406 may search for important words spoken inthe audio stream and disregard insignificant linking words, such as“and,” “of,” “the,” “an,” “because,” “or,” etc.

The conversation analyzer 406 may also be programmed to understandtypical sentence structure. By understanding sentence structure, theconversation analyzer 406 may search for nouns and participles, andignore verbs. The conversation analyzer 406 may ignore verbs becausesome verbs may be consistently used by one or both parties. Also, theverbs may not be a good indicator of the topic of conversation. Forexample, the verb “like” may be used very often in a conversation (“Ilike video chatting,” “I like your shirt,” “I like a TV show”), but“like” does not accurately portray the topic of the conversation.Instead, the topic of conversation may be more accurately portrayed bythe nouns being liked. Thus, especially in the embodiment where theconversation analyzer 406 finds frequently said words, verbs can beignored in favor of nouns and participles. The conversation analyzer 406may also ignore adverbs and adjectives in this manner.

Once the insignificant words have been disregarded, the conversationanalyzer 406 searches for similarities or correlations between thewords. The conversation analyzer 406 may be programmed to understandplaces, people, activities, products, and things. For example, if theconversation analyzer 406 recognizes the words “bat,” “pitch,” and “homerun,” the conversation analyzer 406 may determine that these words sharethe topic of baseball. The conversation analyzer 406 may be able torecognize famous people's names. In another example, if the conversationanalyzer 406 recognizes the words “Kobe Bryant,” “Lebron James,” and“Kevin Durant,” the conversation analyzer 406 determines that the usersare discussing basketball players, or more specifically professionalbasketball players. Finally, if the social network is Facebook, theconversation analyzer 406 may load each conversation participant's“Friends” list and determine if the topic of conversation is a Facebookfriend. If a Facebook friend is determined to be a topic ofconversation, the social network server 402 may subsequently send anotification to the Facebook friend notifying that user that he or sheis a topic of conversation. The notification may also include ahyperlink that allows the user who received the notification to join thevideo chat conversation.

The conversation analyzer 406 may find topics in the words spoken byparticipants of a video chat by a plurality of methods. Trend analyzingsoftware is known in the art, and any trend analyzing software may beimplemented by the software analyzer 406 to determine topics ofconversation. For example, the conversation analyzer 406 may access adatabase filled with many nouns and participles. Each noun or participlemay be associated with many topic tags, and each tag may be a possibletopic related to a word. For example, if the conversation analyzer 406recognizes the word “pitch,” that word could be associated with manydifferent topics of conversation. The word “pitch” could relate to athrown baseball, a business proposal, a perceived frequency of sound, asoccer field, or even an aspect of aircraft flight dynamics. Therecognized word “bat” could be baseball equipment or a flying mammal.Using the topic tags that define and associate each word stored in thedatabase to topics of conversation, trends in the words spoken can bequickly found. A tag system is just one simple example of how topics andtrends may be discovered by the conversation analyzer 406, but any trendanalyzing software currently in existence or not yet developed my beused by the conversation analyzer 406 to find a topic of conversation.

Once the conversation analyzer 406 finds a topic in the words spoken,the conversation analyzer 406 reports the determined topic to the socialnetwork server 402. The social network server 402 may display thedetermined topic to the client devices 410, 412, 414, 416 through thesocial network website so that other users may see what topics are beingdiscussed by the participants of the video chat. If one such usernotices an interesting topic of conversation on the social networkwebsite, the user may decide to join the conversation.

FIG. 5 illustrates how the topics of conversation may be displayed tousers connected to the social network. In the context of FIG. 5, Nathan502 has initiated a conversation with user Cassie 504. After the socialnetwork server receives an indication that the conversation has begun,the social network server prepares a social network information post510. The information post 510 may be displayed to all of Nathan's 502social network connections as well as all of Cassie's 504 social networkconnections. In the Facebook example shown in FIG. 5, the social networkserver displays the information post 510 in Nathan's 502 News Feed 520.In Facebook terms, the information post 510 may be called a “Statusupdate.” The information post 510 displays who are the participants ofthe video chat, which in this case is Nathan 502 and Cassie 504, and thetopics of conversation 512, which in this case is Politics. Lastly, theinformation post 510 includes a link 514 that allows third parties tojoin the conversation. Nathan 502 or Cassie's 504 connections may clickthe link 514 in the information post 510 to join the video conversation.For example, one of Nathan's 502 connections may decide to join theconversation because they like Nathan 502 and Cassie 504 or because theyfind discussions on politics interesting. If other users join theconversation between Nathan 502 and Cassie 504, a similar informationpost 510 will be displayed to the social network connections of thethird user who subsequently joins the conversation initially betweenNathan 502 and Cassie 504. The information post 510 for the newly joinedparticipants would list Nathan 502, Cassie 504, and any new participantsto the conversation.

While Nathan 502 and Cassie 504 converse, the topic of conversation maychange. As a result, the social network server may need to periodicallyupdate the information post 510. The social network server may updatethe information post 510 whenever a new topic of conversation isdetermined by the conversation analyzer. The social network server mayappend the information post 510 or create a new information post 510 fornew topics of conversation. For example, the information post 510, maystate “Nathan and Cassie were talking about Politics, but are nowtalking about Football!” In simpler embodiments, the conversationanalyzer quits finding topics of conversation after determining aninitial topic of conversation. In more complex embodiments, theconversation analyzer constantly analyzes the audio stream of theconversation to determine if a new topic of conversation is beingdiscussed.

FIG. 6 illustrates another screen shot of how topics of conversation maybe displayed to social network connections according to an exemplaryembodiment. As shown in FIG. 6, a variety of topics are arrayed withinan information post 610. Other than displayed topics, the informationpost 610 is substantially the same as the information post 510 of FIG.5. The social network server presents the topics in the information post610 in a variety of different font sizes. The font size may depend onhow often the topic is being discussed. Alternatively, a topic presentedin a larger font may represent that the participants to the video chatdiscussed this topic for a very long time. Or, the size of the font mayrepresent how often the conversation analyzer recognized that particularword, where a larger font represents that the word was frequently saidby a participant of the video chat. In yet another embodiment, the sizeof the font may represent how recently the topic was discussed, where alarger font represent that the topic was more recently discussed than atopic presented in a smaller font size.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate situations where a video call is completelyopen to all social network connections, but the social network serverprovides users with the ability to modify settings of the video chat.For example, a user may request that the social network server publishan information post 510, 610 only to designated social networkconnections. A user who sets up the call may limit who can see the videochat and the topics of the video chat, and the user who sets up thevideo chat may further limit who can join the video chat. Any such videocall setting changes may be selected before connecting a first user to asecond user. For example, a user who sets up the video call may decideto whether to notify all of his or her social network connections of theexistence of the video chat, the participants of the video chat, and thetopics of conversation. A user setting up the call may request thesocial network server to make the “Join Conversation” hyperlinkavailable only to a select few social network connections. The user whosets up the video call may have the option to control who sees theinformation post 510, 610, who can see the topics of conversation, whocan see the participants to the video call, and who can join the call.The social network server may make the video chat settings available toall participants of the video chat, or just the initiator of the call.The user who sets up the call may decide which participants of the callmay control video chat settings.

Referring again to FIGS. 4-6, in another embodiment, the social networkserver 402 may display an information post 510, 610 to specified socialnetwork connections if the participants begin to discuss a designatedtopic of conversation. For example, if Nathan 502 knows that Cassie 504is particularly interested in modern art, Nathan 502 can request thatthe social network server 402 notify Cassie 504 if modern art becomes atopic of conversation during a call. As discussed above, if a socialnetwork connection's name, who is not a participant of the video chat,becomes a topic of conversation, the social network server 402 cannotify the social network connection who became the topic ofconversation that they are being discussed by social networkconnections.

A user may also choose a completely private video chat where noinformation regarding the video call is displayed to social networkconnections. In this situation, no information posts are displayed andjoining the video call is by invitation only. If a user turns off all ofthe conversation tracking settings, the video chat server 404 does notcommunicate with the conversation analyzer 406. While the social networkserver 402 does not display the participants of the video call and thetopics of conversation, the social network server 402 notifies thedesired participants and connects the participants using existing videocall technology. Conversations without topic tracking are well known inthe art and currently provided by many social networks, but theexemplary embodiments provide users with the option to conduct aconventional video call without conversation tracking

The social network server 402 may also log the topics of conversations.So if Nathan 502 and Cassie 504 talked about politics in a first videoconversation, the logging feature may display to both Nathan 502 andCassie 504 in a second video conversation that the last time they spokethrough video chat they discussed politics. The displayed informationmay remind the participants of the video call that they did not finishtheir discussion, and they can pick up where they left off or build anew conversation based off of their last conversation.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method 700 of displaying topics of conversation ona social network according to the exemplary embodiments. The method 700beings at step 702 where a first user initiates a video call with asecond user using a social network. The first user can initiate a videocall with a second user by clicking on a start video call button, suchas the start video call button presented when instant messaging anotheruser on Facebook. The social network server may send an error message tothe first user if the second user is unable to video chat because thesecond user does not have a webcam or is not currently online.

Once the first user initiates the video call, the social network servermay present a plurality of options to the first user. The optionspresented may give the first user the ability to invite other users tothe video chat, and the options allow the first user to control theamount of publicity about the conversation. These options may includewhether to display that the first user is video chatting with the seconduser to social network connections, who can see that the first user ischatting with the second user, whether to display topics ofconversation, which social network connections can see the topics ofconversation, and which users can join the video chat without aninvitation. Many other options may also be displayed. For example, anoption may be presented to allow only shared contacts of both the firstand second user to join the conversation, which may prevent a strangerto one of the participants from joining The configurable options may bepresented before or after the video chat begins. After the call begins,the options may be accessible from a menu.

A user may create preset settings. By using preset settings, the firstuser may initiate a video call without having to select typical settingsevery time they wish to initiate a video call. The preset settings maybe a simple auto-fill routine such that the preset list of all optionsis still presented to a user initiating a call for review. The presetsettings may be reviewed by the user before pressing a submit buttonthat initiates the call. An auto-fill routine of this nature allows auser to make minor changes to the preset settings before initiating acall.

After receiving a request to initiate a call, the social network serversends a request to the second user in step 704. The request asks thesecond user if they would like to join a video chat with the first user.The request may also inform the second user of the settings selected bythe first user. For example, the request may ask the second user if theywould like to join a video conversation where the topics of conversationwill be displayed to all of the first and second user's social networkconnections. The second user can accept or decline the invitation. Thesocial network server determines if the second user accepted or declinedthe request in step 706. If the second user declined the request, themethod ends in step 708.

The second user may accept the request to join the video chat, but notaccept the options selected by the first user. The request may allow thesecond user to accept the request with changes. By accepting the requestwith changes, the social network server sends a new request to the firstuser asking the first user if the settings changed by the second userare acceptable. For example, the first user may desire to have anonchalant chat with the second user where topics of conversation aredisplayed publicly and other connections may join the conversation.However, the second user wishes to talk to the first user about aprivate issue, which the second user may prefer to keep private betweenthe first and second user. As a result, the second user may change thesettings, include a message to the first user explaining the need tospeak more privately, and the first user can accept or decline the newrequest. If the first user declines the changed settings, the method 700also ends.

Once all participants agree to join the video chat and agree to thesettings, the method continues and the video chat server connects thefirst user's client device and the second user's client device throughthe video chat server in step 710. Subsequently, the video chat serversends a message to both client devices requesting necessary hardware,such as a microphone and webcam, to initiate in step 712. Subsequently,the video chat server opens an audio and video channel in step 714 andsends images and sounds captured by the client devices over the Internetto the other conversation participants. Steps 710-714 may be performedby any existing video chat technologies.

Once both parties are connected to the video chat and begin conversing,the video chat server sends the audio stream of the conversation to theconversation analyzer in step 716. The conversation analyzer receivesthe audio stream, records the audio, and analyzes the audio stream todetermine words spoken by the participants of the video chat in step718. The conversation analyzer determines words using any existing voicerecognition technology.

The conversation analyzer analyzes the determined words in step 720.This step may include the process of eliminating insignificant words andflagging important words or phrases. Once the important words aregathered over a predetermined amount of time, the conversation analyzerattempts to find common themes and topics that correlate the importantwords. Once a theme or topic has been determined, the conversationanalyzer sends the determined topic to the social network server. Uponreceiving the determined topic, the social network server creates aninformation post. The amount of information included in the informationpost may depend on the settings selected by the first and second users.Once the social network server creates the information post, the socialnetwork server displays the information post to all or a subset of thesocial network connections of the first and second user in step 722,depending on the settings selected by the participants of the videocall.

If the information post includes a hyperlink that allows additionalusers to join the video chat, additional users may be connected to theconversation by the video chat server. If a social network connectionselects the link to join the conversation, the social network serversends a message to the video chat server that another user needs to beconnected to the video chat. The video chat server then connects the newuser using existing video chat methods and technology.

Steps 718-722 may be continuously repeated throughout the duration ofthe video call. When new topics are determined, the social networkserver may display the additional topics according to any of the methodsdiscussed above. Depending on the hardware capabilities of theconversation analyzer, topics of conversation may be displayed more orless frequently.

In another embodiment, step 720 may involve finding commonly spokenwords or phrases rather than correlating determined words to determinetopics. Frequently said words may be assumed to be the topic ofdiscussion. In an embodiment such as this, a new topic may only beassumed if the total amount of times a word or phrase has been said morethan the currently displayed word or phrase. Unimportant linking wordsare disregarded in this embodiment. The frequency of a spoken word maybe determined over a predetermined period of time, such as 5 minutes.

The information in an information post may give third parties theability to join a conversation they were not expressly invited to, orwere unaware of, and lets them know what topics their friends aretalking about. This additional information is an improvement over theprior art, which provided no information to third parties.

The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be used not onlyfor social uses, but also for commercial uses. For example, if a socialnetwork, like Facebook, which has over 800 million users, were to keeptrack of topics of conversation, that information may be very valuableto advertisers or commercial entities. For example, if a Facebook usercommonly discusses a specific brand of clothing during videoconversations, the company that designs the brand being discussed couldprovide special deals or advertisements to the user commonly discussingthe company's brand.

The logged topics could also be used to find trends. For example, acomputer may analyze the topics determined by the conversation analyzerand find a pulse of the social network. Much like trends on Twitter, thetrends of video chats may be determined. If such trends were combinedwith demographic information, which many social networks have becausepeople upload their birthday, hometown etc., this information could beused for marketing campaigns. Also trends of spoken words inconversation should capture a better understanding of a person's likesand dislikes than a Twitter tweet or Facebook status update becauseverbal communication is the best way to get to know someone.

While the focus of the exemplary embodiments has been on video chatting,the exemplary embodiments can be applied to any audio conversation, suchas VOIP calls or cellular calls. Also, while focus of the informationposts has been on social networks, alternative methods of notificationmay be used. For example, if a first user and second user are conductinga video call through another video call provider, like Skype, thesoftware hosting the video call of this nature may also listen fortopics of conversation. The software may connect to a user's emailaccount and send email notifications to specified users of topics ofconversation. Similar notification methods may be performed usingSMS/MMS messaging to send notifications to a third party's cellularphone.

The exemplary embodiments can include one or more computer programs thatembody the functions described herein and illustrated in the appendedflow charts. However, it should be apparent that there could be manydifferent ways of implementing aspects of the exemplary embodiments incomputer programming, and these aspects should not be construed aslimited to one set of computer instructions. Further, those skilled inthe art will appreciate that one or more acts described herein may beperformed by hardware, software, or a combination thereof, as may beembodied in one or more computing systems.

The functionality described herein can be implemented by numerousmodules or components that can perform one or multiple functions. Eachmodule or component can be executed by a computer, such as a server,having a non-transitory computer-readable medium and processor. In onealternative, multiple computers may be necessary to implement thefunctionality of one module or component.

Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the followingdiscussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description,discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or“calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or “generating” or“synchronizing” or “outputting” or “connecting” or “opening” or“receiving” or “analyzing” or “correlating” or “displaying” or“determining” or “disregarding” or “presenting” or “sending” or“accessing” or “finding” or “filtering” or “identifying” or the like,can refer to the action and processes of a data processing system, orsimilar electronic device, that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (electronic) quantities within the system'sregisters and memories into other data similarly represented as physicalquantities within the system's memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

The exemplary embodiments can relate to an apparatus for performing oneor more of the functions described herein. This apparatus may bespecially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise ageneral purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may bestored in a machine (e.g. computer) readable storage medium, such as,but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, opticaldisks, CD-ROMs and magnetic-optical disks, read only memories (ROMs),random access memories (RAMs) erasable programmable ROMs (EPROMs),electrically erasable programmable ROMs (EEPROMs), magnetic or opticalcards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, and each coupled to a bus.

The exemplary embodiments described herein are described as softwareexecuted on at least one server, though it is understood thatembodiments can be configured in other ways and retain functionality.The embodiments can be implemented on known devices such as a personalcomputer, a special purpose computer, cellular telephone, personaldigital assistant (“PDA”), a digital camera, a digital tablet, anelectronic gaming system, a programmed microprocessor or microcontrollerand peripheral integrated circuit element(s), and ASIC or otherintegrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a hard-wired electronicor logic circuit such as a discrete element circuit, a programmablelogic device such as a PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, or the like. In general, anydevice capable of implementing the processes described herein can beused to implement the systems and techniques according to thisinvention.

It is to be appreciated that the various components of the technologycan be located at distant portions of a distributed network and/or theInternet, or within a dedicated secure, unsecured and/or encryptedsystem. Thus, it should be appreciated that the components of the systemcan be combined into one or more devices or co-located on a particularnode of a distributed network, such as a telecommunications network. Aswill be appreciated from the description, and for reasons ofcomputational efficiency, the components of the system can be arrangedat any location within a distributed network without affecting theoperation of the system. Moreover, the components could be embedded in adedicated machine.

Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the various links connectingthe elements can be wired or wireless links, or any combination thereof,or any other known or later developed element(s) that is capable ofsupplying and/or communicating data to and from the connected elements.The term module as used herein can refer to any known or later developedhardware, software, firmware, or combination thereof that is capable ofperforming the functionality associated with that element. The termsdetermine, calculate and compute, and variations thereof, as used hereinare used interchangeably and include any type of methodology, process,mathematical operation or technique.

The embodiments described above are intended to be exemplary. Oneskilled in the art recognizes that numerous alternative components andembodiments that may be substituted for the particular examplesdescribed herein and still fall within the scope of the invention.

1-19. (canceled)
 20. A method comprising: hosting, by a computer, anaudio channel facilitating audio communication between a first deviceassociated with a first user and a second device associated with asecond user, wherein the audio communication comprises a first audiostream received from the first device and a second audio stream receivedfrom the second device; identifying, by the computer, one or more wordsspoken by at least one of the first user and the second user based uponan analysis of the audio communication of the audio channel; querying,by the computer, a database with the one or more words to determine ifthe one or more words are stored in the database; determining, by thecomputer, one or more tags associated with each respective wordidentified as being in the database; determining, by the computer, acontact spoken by at least one of the first user and the second user inthe audio communication based upon a set of one or more tags identifyingthe contact from one or more social network contact lists, the one ormore social network contact lists comprising a first contact listassociated with the first user and a second contact list associated thesecond user; and generating, by the computer, an information postcompatible with a social network for display to at least the contact ona remote terminal, the information post indicating the contact isdetermined to be spoken in the audio communication.
 21. The methodaccording to claim 20, further comprising performing, by the computer,the analysis of the audio communication on the first audio stream andthe second audio stream to identify the one or more words spoken. 22.The method according to claim 20, wherein performing the analysisfurther comprises: disregarding, by the computer, each respective wordin the one or more words absent from the database.
 23. The methodaccording to claim 20, wherein performing the analysis furthercomprises: identifying, by the computer, one or more important words inthe one or more words spoken; and disregarding, by the computer, each ofthe one or more words not in the one or more important words;
 24. Themethod according to claim 23, wherein the one or more important wordsare selected from the group consisting of a noun and a participle. 25.The method according to claim 23, further comprising identifying, by thecomputer, in the one or more words spoken in the audio communication atleast one word spoken multiple times, wherein the one or more importantwords are selected from the group consisting of each of the one or morewords spoken multiple times.
 26. The method according to claim 20,further comprising hosting, by the computer, an audiovisual channelassociated with the audio channel and facilitating audiovisualcommunication between the first device and the second device.
 27. Themethod according to claim 20, wherein the information post furthercomprises a hyperlink connecting the remote terminal to the audiochannel.
 28. The method according to claim 20, wherein the informationpost further comprises information identifying the first user and thesecond user.
 29. The method according to claim 20, wherein theinformation post further comprises the set of one or more tags relatingto the contact identified from the audio communication.
 30. The methodaccording to claim 20, further comprising determining, by the computer,a plurality of contacts identified by a plurality of sets of one or moretags associated with the one or more words spoken in the audiocommunication channel.
 31. The method according to claim 30, furthercomprising generating, by the computer, a plurality of information postsupon determining the plurality of contacts, wherein each informationpost is associated with each contact respectively.
 32. The methodaccording to claim 20, wherein the font of the information post is basedon a length of time the contact is identified by the one or more wordsspoken in the audio communication.
 33. The method according to claim 20,wherein the font of the information post is based on how recently the atleast one of the first user and the second user spoke a word in the setof one or more words identifying the contact.
 34. The method accordingto claim 20, wherein hosting the audio communication channel furthercomprises: receiving, by a computer, from the first device a request toinitiate the audio channel between the first device and the seconddevice; connecting, by the computer, the first device and a seconddevice over a computing network; and initiating, by the computer, theaudio channel facilitating the audio communication.
 35. The methodaccording to claim 34, further comprising forwarding the request toinitiate the audio channel to the second device, wherein the computerinitiates the audio channel upon receiving an acceptance from the seconddevice in response to the request to initiate the audio channel.
 36. Themethod according to claim 20, wherein hosting the audio communicationchannel further comprises: continuously receiving, by the computer, thefirst audio stream from the first device and the second audio streamfrom the second device.
 37. The method according to claim 20, whereinthe audio channel is associated with the social network.
 38. The methodaccording to claim 20, wherein the computer is associated with thesocial network.
 39. The method according to claim 20, furthercomprising: providing, by the computer, to the first device a graphicalinterface containing one or more selections associated with one or moreconfigurable settings; receiving, by the computer, from the first devicea selection associated with a configurable setting relating to a privacysetting from the first device, wherein the computer generates theinformation post in accordance with the privacy setting.